UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE 
*> 
NEWARK, DELAWARE 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 
6 October 195b 
Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt 
Smithsonian Institution 
U. S. National Kuseum 
WashinfTton 25, D. C. 
Dear Dr. Schmitt: 
Your guesses v/ere close. Height 6» 4"; weight (?) — 220 
lbs. at start of Expedition, 190 when I returned home, so 195 could 
be correct. 
1 sent the slide of English Harbor to the photo lab for 
duplication and it should be back within a week. 
Our first Nutting’s Vase, Vasurn Flobulum nuttin^i Henderson 
was obtained at Carlisle Bay (April 2dth) . T believe that these 
were the first specimens of Nutting’s Vase that John had seen — 
certainly the first living specimens. The circumstances were 
these : 
On the 19th a woman shell collector who happened to be in 
the Coconut Shop (? - novelty shop near the Hotel where we stopped 
for refreshments), St. Johns, told John about the shell and its 
occurrence at Carlisle Bay. Sunday morning John and I went to 
Carlisle Bay by taxi. John spoke to some native women and one 
whose head v/as bandaged as if for a toothache (over the top of the 
head and under the law and then around the head) volunteered to 
get the shell. As we started toward the beach, our group en- 
larged to three women and several children. We went around the 
southeast side of the bay to a rocky area where the women started 
their search. In about a half an hour an older boy came rushing 
to us v^ith two handfuls of live shells. Other boys had lesser 
numbers -- and the women none. We did not know where the older 
boy had collected the Vasurn but it was further south (seaward) 
along the rock^^ bay shore from* where we were. He wanted $10.00 
for the shells and after some bargaining John paid him $6.00 and 
v2.00 and $.50 to the other boys. The "toothache” woman was, of 
course, fit to be tied — and looked "daggers" at the boys. John 
gave her $.35 , which she begrudgingly accepted, for her' fruitless 
efforts. The entire trip cost $8.B5 for 32 specimens of Nutting’s 
Vase and $7.00 for taxi fare. 
That afternoon Jack left for Cuba. 
Hutting’s Vase were subsequently found by us on April 28th 
on windward side of Spanish Point along shore in waters protected 
by the offshore reefs. William Bode and I collected more on 
